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Natural fibers have attracted interest from the demand for renewable materials as an admirable substitute for synthetic fibers (Yang, Ching, and Chuah 2019). Banana fiber is sustainable, environmental-friendly, biodegradable, and could have commendable properties if given sufficient value addition (Manickam and Kandhavadivu 2021). Banana has proved great importance to the world economy in agriculture, food industry, textile production, paper industry, and many other fields (Mohiuddin et al. 2014). In Uganda, East Africa, banana leaves serve as wrappers, cooking utensils, packing materials, fruits for food, juice or beer making, male buds as vegetables, pseudostems for paper, animal feed, and sap as a dye (Ploetz and Evans 2015).

In many areas, banana pseudostems are wasted and left to decompose in gardens during the harvest of fruits. However, banana fibers are obtained from pseudostem sheaths (Jayaprabha, Brahmakumar, and Manilal 2011). Lignocellulosic plant beneficiation and value addition are still arguable due to

various restrictive factors. These may include geographical location, weather changes, the season of harvest, soil compositions, age, part of a plant to be processed, and, most importantly, the processing technique used. These factors impose variations in the properties of biomass (Sango et al. 2018).

However, agricultural-based industries can utilize these plants to make valuable social-economic and ecological sustainability (Ramdhonee and Jeetah 2017). Consequently, there is a need to study and identify suitable techniques to process banana fibers into valuables. Previously, some studies explored the traditional degumming technology that improved the mechanical and morphological properties of the various natural fibers. These methods include chemical, biological and physical means. The enzymatic treatment used in ramie, jute, hemp, and flax degumming exhibited better results than dew retting (Prez et al. 2018). Microbial and enzymatic degumming methods are safe and environmentally friendly, with minor damage to lignocellulosic fibers (Dijkstra 2010; Paramasivam et al. 2020; Yang et al. 2020). However, some studies have shown that due to the long degumming time, expensive equipment, and high production costs, its further application is limited, as observed in jute and ramie fibers (Brühlmann et al. 2000; Hassan and Saifullah 2019). Some studies found that chemical degumming, including alkali pre-treatment, can effectively reduce lignin and other impurities in natural fibers to improve workability (Sengupta et al. 2019). Lignin is the gummiest component in plants. Therefore, it needs to be detached to realize better cellulose content (Lou et al. 2020; Parre et al. 2020). The use of alkali and silane combination gave good results in processing flax fibers for bio-composite use (Georgiopoulos, Kontou, and Georgousis 2018). Studies show that the selection of optimal process parameters in hemp fibers realized minimum strength loss, which helps achieve basic fiber properties. Hence, the duration of processing is shortened (Ahirwar, Rani, and Behera 2021). In the textile industry, ultrasound is also used in degumming to obtain fibers from bast fibers. Apocynum venetum fiber prepared by microwave-assisted ultrasonic degumming displayed better mechanical properties (Li et al. 2020). The steam explosion and alkali treatment methods gave better results in cottonizing hemp fiber as well as modifying bamboo fiber to achieve physical and mechanical stability (Darus et al. 2020; Maria et al. 2020). This research has studied a combination of alkali pre-treatment and ultra-sonication, which have not been used to degum the banana fiber. This study focused on reducing banana fiber’s coarseness using alkali pre-treatment and ultrasonic methods. The fiber obtained is fine and suitable for spinning of yarn or other textile applications. The research sought value addition to transform wasted banana pseudostems into spinnable fiber comparable to cotton or flax-like properties (Das et al. 2010). This technology would also create an eco-friendly substitute (fiber) to reduce cotton and hemp planting pressure. Chemical analysis, Transform Infra-Red Spectrometer (ATR-FTIR), X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometer (XPS), and the X-ray Diffractometer (XRD) examined the contents of the fiber. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and digital microscope studied the fiber morphology and thickness. The electronic single fiber strength testing machine determined the tensile properties. The physical, chemical and morphological studies revealed that banana fiber has good properties.